Stories
by Irhaboggles
Summary: Boq liked working in the library because he liked working with stories. Not books. Stories. Every book had a story, but not every story was a book. The proof was in one Ms. Elphaba Thropp, a peer and friend (and maybe something more) to Boq. To Boq, Elphaba wasn't just a friend or even a lover, she was story, one that was deeply captivating and, tragically, incomplete...


Boq worked at the library. He worked at the library because he liked it there. It was quiet, simple, peaceful work. It was easy, mundane and never surprising. It was simplistic but enjoyable. And he was surrounded by all of these _stories_! Even the nonfiction books, in Boq's mind, could quantify as stories because every single book, no matter what genre, somehow told a story. Even if it wasn't clear, or directly written on the pages of the book in question, a story was always waiting there to be found and read. One could learn so much more than just what was printed on the pages and this was something Boq knew all too well. There was just so many stories everywhere! There were stories of and from all sorts of different times and places, written and read by every creature Boq could and couldn't imagine! To be surrounded by books was not just to be surrounded by knowledge, but to be surrounded by life itself, by story after story after story after story. It was Boq's favorite thing about working at the library. Even if he, himself, didn't read very much, it just filled him with so much awe to be surrounded by so many stories…

But there was one person Boq knew who _loved_ to read. Elphaba Thropp. She was an old friend of his back when they were just two years old, playmates on the local playground. He was one of the few people who didn't mind her green skin and, in return, she tolerated his attempts to play with her, even though she had never been very warm or friendly. Even when all the other little toddlers liked to laugh, play and interact, Elphaba had been cold, distant and prickly. Boq saw within that demeanor a story, even if he hadn't realized it back then at the tender age of two. But even if he hadn't exactly been able to name what attracted him to her so very much, he could say that it happened anyway and despite her initial rebuttals of his offers to play, she ultimately ended up letting him in and the two started a very simple, gentle friendship as playmates.

Sadly, it never really grew beyond that initial stage because Elphaba's family moved not too long after that. It became a story that never got to be told in full. But Elphaba never completely left Boq's life, even when he had thought so himself. He forgot her over the years, as all children do when they start to grow up, but the moment he saw her again at Shiz University, the recognition was instantaneous.

"I think I know you," he had said to her, the moment he saw her. This old, incomplete story was picking back up and he had no idea how to react.

"You don't know me," she had replied warily. "How ever could you know me?"

"You're Miss Elphie, aren't you?" Boq asked back, voice hushed with awe and eyes bright with interest. Yes! It was! Surely it was! That prickly little girl from the playground! Though she was not so little anymore…

"How do you know who I am?" Elphaba demanded. "Master Boq from Munchkinland? I don't know you!"

"You and I played together when you were tiny," Boq replied, trying to jog her memory. But her forgetfulness did not sting him. Instead, he was just so surprised at seeing her again that his reminder to her was acting as a reminder just as much for him! He continued to list off facts about Elphaba's history and the longer and longer he spoke, the more and more he knew he was correct, but Elphaba still could not remember.

"You don't want to talk to me," Elphaba said at last, still clearly not believing a word of what Boq was saying. "Talk to Miss Galinda," the green girl offered, pushing her roommate towards the little Munchkin. "She's much better in parlors than I am. I have to go now," and then she all but fled from the room, leaving a stunned Boq and Galinda in her wake.

After that first meeting, Elphaba got better. It took quite a bit of time, but she no longer retreated from him whenever he drew near. She even engaged in conversation with him! If one could count her witty remarks against his person as conversation. But Boq didn't mind it too much. Every time she insulted him or gave a snide remark, he couldn't help but smirk to himself and think, _Yes, that's Ms. Elphie alright! _Even if they hadn't seen one another in 15 years, he could never forget that temperament that was as sharp and sour as her green skin, and it seemed that that temperament had not changed at all in the 15 years they'd been apart.

The two became friends after that and they continued to write their story together. They studied, talked and occasionally laughed together. Although they were opposite in some aspects, they were very similar in others and they found a great deal of things they could bond over. At last, the library became one of those things. Elphaba had come to Boq, talking about Dr. Dillamond's latest discoveries. She mentioned making library runs around the campus and that was when Boq offered to help use his library, the Three Queens, to help her out.

In the years to come, Boq would remember his time at the library as scented with the must of old books, when ancient script swam before his eyes. He sleuthed alone in the musty stacks, he hovered over the mahogany drawers lined with vellum manuscripts. He brushed and cleaned vellum and rubbed finfoot oil on leather bindings and polished brass clasps. He worked with all sorts of tomes, codices and other manuscripts, both old and new. All of these stories, surrounding him everywhere on all sides. Some old, some new. Some popular, some forgotten. Some clear, some confusing. Some finished, some left on a permanent hiatus. As silly as it might've sounded, it filled him with a sense of power and pleasure to know he was the one working with all of these stories. They were, in some strange, small sense, his to control.

But they weren't just his. As he had promised to Elphaba, some of the stories went to her, aiding her in her research about the biological differences of a Human and an Animal. He and Elphaba created all sorts of new stories out of the old ones that Boq brought her, speculating, theorizing and analyzing every little last picture and page they could find. New stories were generated from old ones as they continued their research. Boq began to fall in love with it, and the girl responsible, just because they both brought him so much closer to the world of stories.

"Stories, stories!" Elphaba remarked one day as the two of them sat alone together in a nearby café. "As many complete ones as we find, there are so many more incomplete ones and yet a thousand more that have never even been written! And maybe they will never be written at all."

"A story that never got told," Boq agreed with an almost sad and pensive tone, though he felt neither sad nor pensive. But his tone caught Elphaba's ears nonetheless and she gave him an unreadable look.

"Are there any untold stories of your life, Boq?" she asked, tone gentle and not at all rude or demanding. It was a rare tone for her, but she knew this could be a sore topic for the Munchkin so she kept her tone usually kind, just this once.

"None that I can think of," he replied calmly, and he was being sincere. "What about you?"

"Ah, plenty. But it's far better if they remain that way," Elphaba snorted back coldly, darkly.

"Really, though?" Boq asked, feeling both sympathetic and philisophical. "Is it really ever better to keep a story unwritten?"

"Yes," Elphaba replied. She said no more than that, and Boq could tell that she wanted to keep it that way, so they did.

These were the sort of conversations they had, idle and intellectual at the same time, and Boq found himself falling deeper and deeper into all of it, like tumbling down a rabbit hole. He hadn't meant to, at first, having only offered to help Elphaba with a bit of research, but then his simple good deed spiraled out of control and he suddenly went falling down with it. Now, he was just as deeply invested in the stories, both written and not, as Elphaba was. What was once only going to be a little side job became a large portion of Boq's life.

"You have gotten me hooked, Ms. Elphaba!" Boq remarked at one point as he and Elphaba poured over yet another discovery pulled up from the deep, dark, depths of the Three Queens library. "I hate to say it, but you have gotten me completely and utterly hooked on this research, and these stories!" he declared, smiling broadly down at their latest find.

"I am glad to say that I am not sorry at all for that!" Elphaba replied, sounding just as happy and proud. It was a rare thing for her and Boq found himself, once again, deeply drawn to it. To _her_. And to all of her untold, unwritten stories that he was only just starting to get glimpses of…

But it was strange, even though it was romantic feelings that were developing from Boq to Elphaba, he never acted on them. As much as he loved Elphaba, and as much as he felt for her, and as much as he knew this, he never once really felt compelled to ask her about it. It was a strange sort of romantic feeling that he felt was already half requited, even though neither he nor Elphaba ever brought up the topic of romance, except to discuss Boq's old crush on Elphaba's roommate, Glinda.

But Boq never felt like he needed to talk about his feelings for Elphaba. It wasn't shyness that kept him quiet, he just felt as if he did not need to ask. It was like a part of him already knew the answer. Elphaba was the one and only girl Boq had ever loved and yet not felt the desire to pursue actively or directly. Just being around her felt like enough. Just being around her felt as if they had been in a relationship their entire lives. And some sense, they had.

Even if there had been a 15-year-gap between chapters one and two in their story, it was still one of the oldest stories Boq had on his life and perhaps that was why his romantic attraction and reaction to Elphaba was so different than his attraction and reaction to any other girl he'd ever fallen in love with before. It was because none of them were ever Elphaba. None of them were ever that strange and mysterious girl who had been the very first one ever to capture his heart, not because of any outward beauty, but because of all that inward mystery. He hadn't fallen in love with Elphaba because she was an open book, but because she was a closed one. He may not have been a bookworm, but he loved stories, and Elphaba's was almost the most intriguing of all to him, from that very first day on the playground when they were two, all the way up until today in one of Shiz's many little cafes.

Boq continued to listen to Elphaba laugh, marveling at her smile. It was a rare and beautiful sight. It was intriguing and he wanted more of it. But he felt no need or desire to tell her as such. He felt no need to tell her anything because he felt as if she already knew it all. He was content just to Be and Be with her. He wondered, sometimes, if she felt the same, if she felt the same strange connection that he did, but just like always with her, he never felt the need to press the issue or talk about it. It was like he and Elphaba, when together, existed on a different plane. They didn't need to talk about things that normal people did because they were so different that the ways in which they communicated were far beyond what normal society-goers might adhere to. He felt as if he already knew all of the answers to his questions and he was sure Elphaba felt the same, even if he could not verify it. And he was sure that even if the answer to the Big Question was no, it would still be yes in some other deep, meaningful way that would more than make up for the initial refusal.

Gah! So many stories! Written and unwritten! There was the story he was writing with Elphaba right now, the one of friendship, laughter, books and research. And there was also the secret one written about their deeper connection. Whether or not it was romance was immaterial. What they shared transcended that type of thinking. And even if it did not last forever, its effects would, and that was almost as good. But already, Boq could tell that there were so many stories that _weren't _being written about them. Romance in its most common form was one of them. Boq had once mused upon asking Elphaba out on a date and maybe even kissing her like a normal boy would to the girl he cared for so deeply, but the thought amused him so much that he laughed out loud at it.

"What amuses you so, Master Boq?" Elphaba asked when she heard him laugh for seemingly no reason at all.

"Nothing but a foolish fantasy," he replied with a smirk. No, he could not see himself or Elphaba ever in a "normal" romantic relationship, with all the kissing, cuddling and sex. And he couldn't see either of them being comfortable in that kind of romance either. The bond they were most comfortable with was this one: just as mysterious, otherworldly, incomplete and unknowable as each of them were.

"Glinda?" Elphaba scoffed.

"No," Boq replied with another laugh. Although his attraction to Glinda still ran deep and he did still fantasize about her frequently, the feelings he got for her were wildly different from the feelings he got for Elphaba, though he did not have the words to explain it. And even though he adored each girl deeply, he never felt conflicted about it. If anyone were ever to ask him who he chose between Elphaba and Glinda, he would say that he did not need to pick because his feelings for them were not in direct conflict because his feelings for Elphaba were so beyond normal and comprehendible. His feelings for Glinda, like Glinda, were far more typical and simplistic. But his feelings for Elphaba? They were on another plan entirely, so he felt no conflict in loving both Elphaba and Glinda at the same time, because it was such a different love in either case.

"Then what? Some other silly little sweetheart who has finally caught your eye?" Elphaba pressed teasingly. "If it is not Glinda…?"

"Afraid not," Boq grinned back. "I have not seen many women _since_ Glinda!"

"Ah, I hope our time together does not impede your time in trying to find a mate!" Elphaba continued to tease.

"Never. I don't need one when I am with you," Boq replied, and Elphaba could hear the sincerity in his voice and she could see it in his eyes.

"Good," she replied, then she flashed another rare smile again at Boq and Boq felt a familiar tingle run through his body in response. It was another glimpse into that story, that mysterious story of Elphaba, that he was so interested in hearing about. He did not want to read it for himself, because that felt intrusive, but rather, he wanted Elphaba to show it to him herself, to let him in of her own accord and show him her story through the way she acted around him, which was exactly how the two interacted now. That was what made their relationship so unique and beautiful…

"I should say you look silly," Elphaba said to him another day, referring again to his strange but incessant crush on Glinda. Perhaps to him it was simple, but to Elphaba, it was confounding. "She may be lovely Boq, no, she _is _lovely, but you're worth a dozen of her!"

And for one second, the entire world stopped for Boq as a new story, not just a new chapter, began to write itself out right before his very eyes. A story of love, romance, partnership, commitment and a lifelong time together. It was the most forward Elphaba had ever been and, for the first time ever, Boq was finally forced to confront his airy feelings head-on. Did he love Elphaba? And more importantly, did _she_ love _him_? He could see their story unfolding. Dating. Wedding. Children. Retirement. Did he really want that? With Elphaba? Did he really feel it? Did she?

But in response to his shocked expression she threw up her hands, seemingly no more ready or able to confront that question than he was.

"Not me! I don't mean me!" she cried, almost sounding… despairing? Humiliated? Hurt? … Desiring?

"Please, that stricken look!" she continued to beg, though he was too focused on Elphaba's words and expressions to realize his own. "Spare me!" But for once, he wasn't sure if he believed her. For once, their relationship was not quite so clear and mutually understood. For once, their relationship was a mystery. For once, their relationship was a _story_. A story not yet told. A story Boq's curiosity wanted to read. Did Elphaba?

Elphaba gathered her things in a hurry and rushed out, knocking over various objects and people in her haste to flee Boq's stunned presence. She didn't look both ways as she lunged across Railway Square and was nearly mowed down by an old Ox on a cumbersome tricycle and she most certainly did not look back either. It was just like that first night at Shiz, when his insistence that they were old friends and playmates had sent her running. Why did he do that? Why did he always send her running? That was another story he wanted desperately to read, and this time, it was one that should've been under his control, but it wasn't. It was still just a mystery to him, just like everything else about Elphaba Thropp.

"Why?" he asked her, even though she was long-gone by then. "Why do I always send you running?"

But that was the last time anything like that ever happened between the two of them. Everything went back to normal as soon as it could until, suddenly, Elphaba was gone again. Just like in their childhood, she practically vanished from Boq's life. Glinda came home alone from the Emerald City in tears, sobbing that Elphaba had run away, abandoning them all on a foolish, hopeless, silly quest of hers. It had brought much pain to all the green girl left behind, but Boq found himself feeling the most conflicted of all. It was just like when they were kids. Another story cut off so abruptly, with no promise of ever continuing. But he, unlike everyone else in their Charmed Circle, understood. Unlike everyone else, because he had been closer to Elphaba than any of the rest of them had (even Glinda) he knew exactly what had driven Elphaba to do this. The Animals.

Elphaba had done this for the Animals, and everything that they represented to her: freedom, justice, a purpose in life, being the hero she had needed when she was a kid, standing up for a fellow minority group because there had never been anyone to stand up for her. But most importantly of all, she had done it because it was a story that had never been told before (at least not in their lifetimes): one where humans and Animals coexisted peacefully. Elphaba had run off to write that untold story because she wanted to see what the ending would look like and the only way to get there was to go through the beginning and middle. Elphaba had run off to complete a story because the allure of that story was too much for her to ignore or be content with an unfinished ending. Boy, couldn't Boq understand that!

But in making this decision to pursue one story, Elphaba was forced to end another: her story with Boq. She closed two covers that day, one of her own and one of Boq's. Now, he would never ever truly know how their life might've panned out had they stayed together. And he wasn't even necessarily thinking about marriage. He was just thinking about a life where they were never apart. It was a story they'd almost written. But once again, life changed the script for Boq and left him alone again. Another cover shut, another story with an incomplete ending as its grand finale. Just like when they were toddlers. Only this time, Boq had a feeling that this ending was more final. It was not just an intermission. It was the end.

"Farewell then, Ms. Elphaba," Boq spoke to the seat across from himself. He was sitting again at the café where Elphaba had first hinted… but this time, she wasn't there. It was just him and an empty chair. He raised his teacup. "Here's to the stories that never get told."

Boq liked the library. He liked it there because, in the library, he was always surrounded by all of these _stories_! Even the nonfiction books, in Boq's mind, could quantify as stories because every single book, no matter what genre, somehow told a story. Even if it wasn't clear, or directly within the pages of the book in question, a story was always waiting there to be found and read. One could learn so much more than what was printed on the pages and this was something Boq knew all too well. There was just so many stories everywhere! There were stories of and from all sorts of different times and places, written and read by every creature Boq could and couldn't imagine! To be surrounded by books was not just to be surrounded by knowledge, but to be surrounded by life itself, by story after story after story after story. It was Boq's favorite thing about working at the library. Even if he, himself, didn't read very much, it just filled him with so much awe to be surrounded by so many stories…

But one of the saddest lessons Boq ever learned was that some of these beautiful stories were stories he would never ever get to read because they weren't even in the library. As many stories as there were in the library, it still wasn't every story in the world, and that was what saddened Boq the most. There were some stories he was missing out on, that he would never ever get to see. There were some stories the library lacked. This was because they were the stories that never got told.

**AN: Legit if Glinda weren't a character in Wicked, I would be all for Elphaboq. I ship them so hard and it conflicts with my Gelphie heart which sucks. So enjoy this Elphaboq story I've been wanting to write for quite some time now but never got around to until recently. It symbolizes my feelings on the ship as well as their potential feelings for each other and what might've been…**

**Hope it wasn't too rambly and prosey!**


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